Prime Minister Narendra Modi is one of the first Indian leaders to interact with the top CEOs and business leaders of Silicon Valley, during his second US stint. PM Modi has met Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai and Alphabet’s CEO and Google co-founder Larry Page (the holding company of Google), Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Qualcomm’s Executive Chairman Paul E. Jacobs, CISCO’s John Chambers and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk on this trip, making it a power-packed trip for any Indian leader.
The PM’s visit has also come with some key announcements and along with discussions on future possibilities of certain new technologies coming to India. We take a look at certain key announcements made during the course of this visit.
Google and WiFi at 500 Railway stations: Google has announced that it will help India set up base for free Wi-Fi at 500 railway stations.
“We are expanding our public Wi-Fi hotspots. For example, we want to ensure that free Wi Fi is not only there in airport lounges, but also on our railway platforms. Teaming up with Google, we will cover 500 railway stations in a short time,” PM Modi said at a dinner hosted by Silicon Valley CEOs in his honour.
Google’s map of railway stations that will get WiFi in India.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that initially high speed Internet will be provided at 100 railway stations by end of 2016 and later to 400 more by the next year.
In an official blogpost, Google’s Pichai wrote,” The network will expand quickly to cover 100 of the busiest stations in India before the end of 2016, with the remaining stations following in quick succession. Even with just the first 100 stations online, this project will make Wi-Fi available for the more than 10 million people who pass through every day. This will rank it as the largest public Wi-Fi project in India, and among the largest in the world, by number of potential users.” The project will start with Chennai.
Pichai has also promised high speed access with this WiFi project. He goes on to note in the blog, ” It will also be fast—many times faster than what most people in India have access to today…” What he doesn’t mention is if Google will be bringing Google Fibre as part of its expansion project.
Google and keyboards in Indic languages: As smartphones become the driver of Internet adoption in India, Google has realised the importance of allowing Indian users to type and interact with these devices in their regional languages.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai at the Silicon Valley dinner. (Source: PTI)
From next month, Google will make it possible for people to type in 10 different languages in India, including Gujarati. The feature will go live in the next month.
Microsoft low-cost broadband to 5 lakh villages Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that the company plans to partner with the Indian Government to bring in low-cost broadband connectivity to 500,000 villages in India.
Satya Nadella at the dinner in the honour of the PM. (Source: PTI)
“We believe that lost-cost broad band connectivity coupled with the scale of cloud computing intelligence that can be harnessed from data can help drive creativity, efficiency and productivity across governments and businesses of all sizes,” Nadella said at the meeting with the PM.
Microsoft also announced the availability of its cloud services operating out of India’s data centres, will become operational next week.
Qualcomm and investments for start-ups: Qualcomm, announced a $150 million (approximately Rs 9.8 billion) venture investment fund for start-ups in India via its Qualcomm Ventures.
According to a press statement from Qualcomm, the aim is to fuel start-ups contributing to mobile and ‘internet of everything’ ecosystem and it will provide them with financial, marketing, technology and business support.
Qualcomm also launched a “Design in India Initiative and Competition” to help India become a hub for design capabilities that drive the manufacturing value chain for 3G/4G smartphones, tablets and Internet of Everything (IoE).
Qualcomm will also set up an Innovation Lab in Bangalore to provide technical and engineering support to Indian companies, and support for multiple Indian mobile device design companies.
“We are committed to providing local innovative start-ups with the support needed to help India’s IOE (Internet of Everything) ecosystem grow, increasing consumer choice and availability,” Qualcomm executive chairman Paul E Jacobs said in his remarks at the dinner hosted in honour of Modi.
PM Modi and the meeting with Tesla Motors: While there were no concrete announcements after PM Modi and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, as we reported, the meeting was primarily due to India’s interest in the company’s solar Powerwall technology.
Powerwall technology is a new battery by Telsa that will power an entire household. The Powerwall, as the name suggests, goes on a wall in the home and can connect to a solar panel. It will act as a storage for backup power from the panel, as well as full power backup during outages. Read more here.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk and PM Modi. (Source: PIB)
For India, where efficient and increasing energy needs are a concern, such a battery holds revolutionary potential. Modi and Tesla founder Elon Musk also discussed the possibility of a more affordable car from the company. Tesla’s Solar-powered cars are fairly expensive, even in the US.
“Enjoyed discussion on how battery technology can help farmers,” Modi said after his hour-long visit to Tesla campus wherein he was given a tour by its CEO Elon Musk. Musk said that he had a “great discussion” with Modi about solar and batteries empowering rural communities.
“For India the main take away was the technology behind long term storage battery, which can have multiple applications,” said Vikas Swarup, spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs. “The Prime Minister was very keen to see how we could utilize the battery – the Powerwall concept – to leap frog development in India,” he added.
Apple CEO Tim Cook and PM Modi: Prime Minister Modi also invited Apple to set up a manufacturing base in India and its CEO Tim Cook responded positively, Indian officials said.
This Post is appeared on: indianexpress
